Forwards steer St Brendan's to win

A “COURAGEOUS” effort from front-rowers Tama Heka and Justice Grace helped St Brendan's College to victory over Kirwan State High School in the semi-final of the ARL Schoolboy Cup yesterday.

In a physical affair, the game went into extra time after the scores were locked 12-all at full-time.

After extra time, neither side could manage to break the deadlock.

In schoolboy rugby league, after 10 minutes of extra time, the winning team is the one that scores the most tries in the match.

However, both sides had scored the same amount of tries, therefore the team that scored the first try of the match was declared the winner.

That was St Brendan’s College’s Corey Oates.

Despite an earlier start in which St Brendan’s looked in control, Kirwan hit back quickly and led at half-time 10-6.

St Brendan’s were next to score to take a 12-10 lead.

The Yeppoon-based side looked like winning the match in regular time before giving a penalty away within in kicking range 30 seconds from full-time.

Kirwan was successful with the kick and the match was locked up at full-time.

St Brendan’s coach Terry Hansen was particularly pleased with the effort of his forward pack, which stood up to the much larger Kirwan pack.

“Tama Heka and Justice Grace were outstanding up front for us,” said Hansen.

“It wasn’t pretty but they just hung in there.”

To make the win even more impressive, the Kirwan side included a number of North Queensland Cowboys’ Toyota Cup players including second-rower Jason Taumalolo who is a regular fixture starting side.

St Brendan’s now face Keebra Park in the state final next week.